We plan to continue this year with our Reading and Discussion Group on the theme of TEACHER RESEARCH / RESEARCHING TEACHERS. Many of us are involved in researching our own classrooms (i.e. balancing the roles of teacher and researcher) or in researching other teachers, and this interaction between teacher and researcher (and between teaching and researching) raises all kinds of interesting methodological, critical and ethical issues. We would like to explore these issues and share our experiences through this Reading and Discussion Group.

Ema and Richard

term 2 (January to March 2012)

Our next Reading and Discussion Group session will take place on Wednesday 25 January (2-4pm, Room S1.71). Continuing our theme of teacher research, we will discuss a state-of-the-art paper by Simon Borg on 'Language teacher research engagement', published in Language Teaching in 2010. This paper discusses the professional development benefits and challenges of research engagement by teachers, in the sense of teachers doing research and/or teachers engaging with research (i.e. by reading and using it). Borg's analysis considers why teacher research remains a minority activity and how more teacher engagement with research might be facilitated. To download a copy of the paper, click here.

Term 1 (october to december 2011)

Our second Reading and Discussion Group session took place on Wednesday 9 November (2-4pm, Room A1.05). Continuing our theme of 'researching teachers', we discsussed a paper by Dana Ferris et al. entitled 'Responding to L2 students in college writing classes: Teacher perspectives' (also published this year in TESOL Quarterly). The particular focus of this paper (giving feedback on writing, and how teachers engage with this process) is an area of research and professional practice which is of interest to many in CAL (staff and students). To download a copy of the paper, click here.

Our first Reading and Discussion Group session this year took place on Wednesday 26 October (2-4pm, Room A1.05). We explored the role of narrative and narrative inquiry as a tool for knowledge-building in teacher development and teacher education. Specifically, we discussed a very recent paper by Karen Johnson and Paula Golombek entitled 'The transformative power of narrative in second language teacher education' (published in TESOL Quarterly in September 2011). To download a copy of the paper, click here.

Term 2 (January to march 2011)

For the second session on Wednesday 2 February, we explored issues of teacher learning and teacher cognition (partly in anticipation of Simon Borg's upcoming guest lecture on teacher cognition on 2 March - more details to follow). To give focus to our discussions, we looked at two papers which examine issues in teacher learning and teacher cognition within the framework of 'possible selves theory'.

One paper by Maggie Kubanyiova (entitled 'Possible selves in language teacher development') examines processes of teachers' conceptual change (or lack of change) through INSET experiences. The other paper by Cynthia White and Alex Ding (entitled 'Identity and self in e-language teaching') examines processes of teacher learning and identity change through engagement in new technology-based teaching-learning experiences. To download copies of the papers, click here.

For the first session on Wednesday 19 January, we discussed a paper suggested by Darío Banegas (1st year PhD) that raises issues and challenges in doing teacher research, from the perspectives of the different parties and partnerships involved, and their various roles, motivations and professional identities (university academics, research facilitators, teachers, teacher-researchers).

The article is by Gewirtz et al., published in Educational Action Research 2009, and entitled 'Doing teacher research: A qualitative analysis of purposes, processes and experiences'. To download a copy, click here.

Term 1 (October to December 2010)

For the fourth session on Wednesday 24 November, we looked back on the rise of teacher-led forms of reflective practice and practitioner research. This session was led by Steve Mann and in particular highlighted a series of conferences and publications that consciously promoted the view of the teacher as an active researcher. The Teachers Develop Teachers Research (TDTR) series of conferences were a good example of a sustained vehicle for showcasing teacher research projects that have led to reflection and teacher development (see Edge & Richards 1993: Field et al.1997; Head 1998; De Decker & Vanderheiden 1999; Santiago 2005). The concept of the ‘reflective practitioner’ is perhaps less problematic than ‘teacher as researcher’. The division between research and practice is a potentially divisive one (Edge and Richards 1993, Clarke 1994, Freeman 1996). Notions of ‘reflective practice’ and ‘continuing professional development’ share the view that teachers develop by studying their own practice, collecting data, and using reflective processes as the basis for evaluation and change (Richards and Lockhart 1994) but how mainstream is this kind of reflection and research? The session asked whether this kind of movement has run out of steam. Steve's 2005 ‘state-of-the-art’ article about teacher development in Language Teaching provided a context for the discussion. To download the article, click here.

For the third session on Wednesday 10 November, we explored the use of student focus groups as research tools and also pedagogical tools for teachers and teacher-researchers. The session was led by Sherri Wei (final year PhD) who invited discussion of an article on focus group methods (Parker and Tritter 2006, downloadable here), and also talked about some of her focus group interview data from her practitioner research study in Taiwan.

After the session, Sherri provided the following link for further information about the interview question guide she had used ('ORID'): http://www.mujcin.com/ekonet/FacilitationSkills.pdf (see pp. 13-14); another useful link, Sherri suggests, is: http://www.adnu.edu.ph/Centers/CLG/clg-pub1.asp 

For the second session on Wednesday 27 October, we discussed issues in researching teachers, and particularly issues of roles, relations and identities in the interview process when researchers interview teachers. Part of the session focused on an article written by Pat Sikes which discusses critical issues arising when teacher-interviewees deliberately mislead researchers. The article ('Truth and 'lies' revisited, British Educational Research Journal 26(2), 2000) can be downloaded by clicking here. In addition, Elaine Tang (3rd year PhD), who has recently finished her fieldwork in Hong Kong, brought along some of her teacher interview data for discussion.

For the first session on Wednesday 13 October, we discussed an article published in Language Teaching Research in 2006 by a former PhD student in the Centre, Na Li. She was trying to conduct research on her own students' motivation and faced some critical issues in balancing her roles as teacher and researcher. Her article can be downloaded by clicking here.

At this first ELLTA session, we also devoted some time to planning the content of later sessions this term.